What is Homeschool Solutions?

Homeschool Solutions is a monthly enewsletter that features news, tips, resources, and articles to meet the needs of your homeschooling family. You’ll also find out about special money-saving offers and new releases from BJU Press.

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In January of 2103 Katherine (K. A.) Applegate joined an elite group of authors when her book The One and Only Ivan was named the winner of the ALA's 2013 Newbery Award for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

A good night’s sleep—the elusive goal of every mom, yet often underappreciated by the general population. If you are like me, you have spent many long nights feeding hungry babies, nursing sick children, and comforting little ones.

While February has many notable holidays, the entire month is known as Black History Month. This monthly celebration is the brainchild of historian Carter Woodson (1875-1950) who is commonly called “the father of black history.”

I love Christmas; I always have. But through the years, some of my dearest friends have held the holiday at arm’s length. They view the unconverted Ebenezer Scrooge as a sympathetic character, and they see his change of heart as a tragic turn of events.

We know autumn as the season of harvest. Even with the conveniences of grocery stores and restaurants, we all look forward to the cooler weather that brings fresh apples, cider, squash, and pumpkins to the produce stands. For all the difficulties that a life of crop farming involves, it must be rewarding to gather in the harvest.

What do you think of when you hear the word "artifact"? Does it make you think of archeological sites and workers carefully excavating ancient pieces of pottery, jewelry, and tools? You would be on the right track!

As believers, we experience a special thrill of joy whenever we see a rainbow's beautiful colors arch across the sky. God gave a stunningly luminous representation of hope on that long-ago day to the family He kept through the storm. But even before the rainbow, before the flood, there was another remarkable keeping.

I will never forget the day that I became a mom. I will never forget holding my tiny, 5 lb., 2 oz. daughter for the first time, seeing her slate blue eyes gazing up at me and seeing her tiny mouth open wide for a big yawn. And I will never forget that first night.

We’ve all heard that the brain is like a muscle, and that means that it has to be challenged and exercised regularly to stay in shape. The hard work students put into their studies during the school year is almost wasted if they don’t spend at least some time during the summer months keeping the material fresh in their minds.

It had been a hectic morning, and I felt like I was losing my mind. Even when I turned to my Bible, I couldn’t remember the reference to one of the most beloved verses of encouragement—“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” Where was it? Where was it?
Pulling up my electronic Bible, I did a search with the words “all things work.”

Woohoo … you're going to college! Graduating from high school and getting ready to head off to college can be an exciting time. But there may be a few things that have you concerned—like choosing a college major. The great news is that you don't have to worry. There are some things that you can do that will help you as you make this important decision. Welcome to Choosing a College Major 101.

Deciding what you should major in and where to study it is hard enough, but when you throw in the question of how to finance this great adventure, everything gets a lot trickier! Thankfully, figuring out your financial process is a lot simpler if you lay all the pieces out so that you can see them and know what to look for.

Sometimes, often before we parents feel "ready," we're required to relinquish control over our offspring's lives and futures. For me, revisiting the story of Hannah and Samuel stirs me to wonder at God's faithfulness and at a mother's trust when faced with letting go.

We all fantasize at some point about finding our "niche" in life—that one thing that we can do better than almost anyone around us because it just "comes naturally." Unfortunately, most of us discover when we're young that we aren't as prodigiously talented as we had hoped. We are—the dreaded word—average.

Ever wondered if homeschooling your children will prepare them adequately for college? How will your child handle the academic, emotional, and peer pressures of the formal education environment? There's nothing like a letter home to get a glimpse of a real student's experiences!

Joshua pulled his cloak closer and gazed out into the night. Cooking fires smoldered in the darkness. The sentries continued their rounds. Livestock crunched their feed, undisturbed by the multitude of sounds and smells drifting on the breeze. Hundreds of thousands of people were camped before him, their tents stretched out in the moonlight. And beyond it all lay the Jordan.

"You have to welcome the pain," my mother said to the young mother in labor. "Each contraction brings you that much closer to holding your baby." I was home from my sophomore year in college and helping with a homebirth had not been on my "must-do" list of things for the summer.

All right, we admit it.
For most of us, the bounty of the harvest we celebrate in November comes from the grocery store. The Pilgrims would never recognize our "harvest"--canned, prepackaged, pasteurized, and processed--as bearing any resemblance to theirs.

It wasn't too difficult of an assignment, really: to speak for 15 minutes at a homeschool mothers Christmas luncheon on what it means to be a homeschool mom. Pretty straightforward, right? Yet despite my best efforts I was once again down to the wire and facing a blank page.

Autumn has returned--with its brightly woven cornucopia of holidays, harvest fruits, bittersweet memories, and beautiful trees. This year finds you, perhaps, a little sadder, hopefully wiser; maybe you are entering a new phase as you begin homeschooling for the first time or your oldest child leaves for college.

Have you ever noticed that we often forget to be thankful for something until it's too late? Thanksgiving is less than a month away and yet there's so much to be thankful for between now and then. Don't wait until the official holiday to start counting your blessings. Get the whole family involved by making the time leading up to Thanksgiving a month of "thankfuls."

New Year’s resolutions—they come in as many varieties as colors in a new crayon box. But it’s only September! Why are we talking about New Year’s resolutions now? Because it’s the new school year, and whether we admit it or not, we all start the school year with secret resolutions that “this year things will be different!”

Sunny summer months are a great time to take your family for a hike through God’s beautiful creation. The kids may have a break from school, but that doesn’t mean your next family hike can’t be a learning experience.This article has been republished on the BJU Press blog.

As a child, BJU Press textbook author Kim Stegall was not interested in following her parents’ English teaching careers, but love for the English language ran in her blood. Distinctive phrases, unusual vocabulary words, and “listen to this!” created a daily atmosphere in which English linguistics were a beloved part of everyday life.

“Helping students fall in love with history should be the goal of every history teacher,” says Dennis Bollinger—and he would know! Thanks to two history teachers passionate about their subject and God’s role in it, Dennis developed a love for history that would influence his studies and his life.

Asking good questions is not natural for most teachers. Even experienced home educators can often become more effective by evaluating whether their questions are exercising students' critical thinking skills.

Both strict censorship and total exposure in a homeschool literature curriculum can harm a child's worldview. The biblical perspective is to teach discernment of objectionable elements and themes through the lens of Scripture.